Theme of Animal Farm (Q2: 14)

Quote: "The creatures outside looked from pig to man, and from man to pig, and from pig to man again; but already it was impossible to say which was which." (128)

This quote is talking about what the animals of Animal Farm are observing through the window of the farmhouse. They saw the neighboring farmers holding a banquet in Napoleons honor, and cannot see the difference between the pigs and the humans.

I chose this quote because it summarizes the theme of the book. It also uses metonymy in its diction, repeating pig and man and using pig as a metonym for a greedy person. The pigs have become a literal embodiment of the "pig" metonym. 

Analysis: The theme of Animal Farm is that Greed is the only commandment that all species and societies will adhere to, and is the driving force behind politics. We see in this book that there are seven rules, or commandments, set forth at the beginning of the Revolution. The pigs, Napoleon specifically, break every single one. They do hold to their greed though. As they get fatter and richer, they squeeze more and more work from the animals for less and less investment. At the first opportunity, we see that Napoleon was willing to take advantage of his "comrades'" naivete and drink all of the cows' milk, and his sights only get set higher. This is how the humans got to where they are in the story, and its how Napoleon got to where he is in the story. Greed is a rule of life.